A building firm manager let himself into an unsuspecting woman’s flat to have sex with his mistress in her living room.

Peter Barnes took part in “sexual shenanigans” in the woman’s empty flat on the Bognor seafront while she was away on business.

He initially had access to the building through his work.

At a court hearing on Tuesday, Barnes pleaded guilty to the criminal damage of a £1,000 rug which was stained during his sexual activities.

The woman, whose flat is located in The Esplanade, said she had been left vulnerable and feeling distraught by the sordid episode after Barnes, 62, violated her home with his extra-marital partner.

Reading her emotional victim statement at Worthing Magistrates' Court, the flat owner said: “The last 17 months have been some of the worst in my life.

Flats in The Esplanade in BognorFlats in The Esplanade in Bognor (Image: Google Maps)

"My safe space has been violated and I can’t escape it because it’s my home.

“I feel disgusted and repulsed to even touch my own possessions in my own home.

“I felt so lucky to buy this apartment on the seafront – a lifelong dream of mine – and he has sullied this.”

Barnes, who was working as a customer care manager at construction firm King and Drury at the time, used a set of keys to enter the apartment at around 2.30pm on February 8, 2023.

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Once inside, Barnes and his mistress began having sex in the unsuspecting flat owner’s living room.

The intercourse was caught on cameras installed in the home.

In her statement, the flat owner said she had paid to have the flat sterilised multiple times, changed the locks to her flat and installed more cameras after the incident.

She added that she was also facing ongoing stress as Barnes “went into her office after his sexual shenanigans”.

"I have a new-found nervousness walking to and from my home," she said.

"I constantly look over my shoulder, day or night - I have never done that in my life.

"I am no longer able to trust people like I did before."

Jason Halsey, defending, told the court that Barnes was “rightly embarrassed, shocked and horrified by his own behaviour”.

He added: “His [Barnes’s] own relationship was going through a very bad patch.

“It was a one-off where he lost control and did something very dirty and very turgid.”

Barnes, of Greenwood Avenue in Bognor, was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,250 compensation.